Vaccinations are underway at Virginia Hospital Center.
Healthcare workers at Arlington hospital are receiving some of the first does of the recently-authorized Pfizer vaccine.
|
Virginia Hospital Center
Arlington’s cumulative coronavirus case count has passed the 7,000 mark, only two weeks after it crossed 6,000.
By contrast, it took more than 70 days over the summer to go from 2,000 to 3,000 cases.
Arlington’s ‘Bachelorette’ Contestant Talks — “For me, I like the hole-in-the wall bars. Just like, a dive bar where I can just like, grab a beer. Like I love drinking Guinness or some sort of Allagash White or something like that. If I were to go to a bar in Arlington to watch a game, I don’t know — maybe like, First Down in Ballston or like Spider Kelly’s.” [Washingtonian]
CaBi Comes to DCA — “The Capital Bikeshare station at National Airport is live! Traveling to the airport just got a whole lot easier.” [Twitter]
|
Major Metro Cuts Proposed — “With sharply reduced ridership and lacking fresh federal relief, Metro is proposing a new operating budget with a nearly $500 million deficit. Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld said Monday the proposed 2021 budget includes closing Metro rail at 9 p.m., ending weekend service, closing 19 stations and reducing the number of trains, which would result in longer wait times.” Among the stations that would close under the proposal are the Arlington Cemetery, Clarendon, East Falls Church and Virginia Square stations. [WTOP, Washington Post]
County Working on New Payment System — “Arlington officials continue to work on developing a one-stop online presence so the public can pay for a wide array of local-government services from their computers or smartphones. The initiative, being worked on by the treasurer’s office and Department of Technology Services, would go beyond the current CAPP [Customer Assessment and Payment Portal], which allows local residents to pay certain taxes, utility bills and parking tickets online.” [InsideNova]
Frederick-to-Arlington Transit Proposal — “Proposed transit service connecting Arlington to Frederick (Md.) and points in between remains on the table, but barely, after scoring low in a recent cost-benefit analysis conducted by the Virginia and Maryland state governments… As envisioned, the transit route would start at Frederick six times each workday morning and terminate an hour later at the Pentagon, with intermediate stops at Monocacy, Urbana, Germantown, Gaithersburg, Montgomery Mall and Rosslyn.” [InsideNova]
Women Groped in Aurora Highlands — “At approximately 7:18 p.m. on November 3, police were dispatched to the late report of an assault. Upon arrival, it was determined that at approximately 6:30 p.m., the victim was running in the area when the suspect approached her from behind and grabbed her buttocks. The victim yelled, and the suspect fled on foot, then entered the passenger side of a vehicle and left the area.” [ACPD]
|
(Updated at 10:50 a.m. on 1/10/22) The two retail occupants of a squat commercial building at the intersection of Lee Highway and N. George Mason Drive have now both moved out.
TitleMax, which opened at 5265 Lee Highway in 2014, closed recently and has cleared out of the space, which was previously a 7-Eleven store. A sign on the door directs customers to a remaining TitleMax location at 6198-C Arlington Blvd, in Seven Corners.
|
County Launching Race Conversations — “Today, Arlington County launched a new effort to address racial equity and disparities in our community. Called Dialogues on Race and Equity (DRE), the effort is part of the County’s broader commitment to racial equity… DRE will include a series of virtual community conversations with individuals, nonprofit organizations, civic associations, faith organizations, and businesses.” [Arlington County]
Local Nurses Hold Food Drive — “Nurses at the Virginia [Hospital] Center are going above and beyond to give back to the local community… Nurses launched the ‘Together We Can’ campaign where they collected canned goods. All together, they collected 10,000 cans and donated them directly to the food assistance center.” [WJLA]
Arlington County has seen three consecutive days of coronavirus cases below the seven-day moving average.
The relative reduction in cases over the weekend is welcome news, but the county is — like much of the rest of the country — continuing to see a baseline of new cases as colder weather and the flu season approach.
|
(Updated at 9:50 a.m.) After holding steady for more than a week, the number of new coronavirus hospitalizations in Arlington have jumped over the past few days.
Eleven new hospitalizations have been reported since Tuesday, according to Virginia Dept. of Health data. The cumulative total now stands at 448.
|
Virginia Hospital Center (1701 N. George Mason Drive) has opened up a new suite of patient rooms, each a bit larger than the typical hospital rooms with some features designed with COVID-19 in mind.
“Virginia Hospital Center’s new 4th floor patient unit and nurses’ station opened in August, adding 21 more private rooms that are 30% larger than VHC’s standard rooms,” a spokesperson for the hospital said in a statement. “The interior design of the new unit continues the clean, modern aesthetic of the VHC campus creating a comforting space for patients and families.”
Crowding on sidewalks, which has occurred outside Arlington bars on recent weekends, has significant potential to spread the coronavirus, according to local infectious disease experts.
Confirming fears held by county officials and residents, infectious disease specialists at Virginia Hospital Center and George Mason University said the lack of physical distancing in these crowds, varying levels of mask wearing and the social environment makes the risk of coronavirus spread high.
|
(Updated at 1:15 p.m.) There’s good news and bad news when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic in Arlington.
The bad news is that the rate of new cases reached a fresh two-month high over the weekend. On Saturday, the seven-day trailing total of new cases reached 156, the highest point since June 2, as the county came down from the peak of its epidemic.